Mark Salling, the actor known for his role in the television series Glee, has died at age 35, his attorney said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Salling was due to be sentenced on child pornography charges on March 7.
While American entertainment portal TMZ quoted law enforcement sources saying Salling’s death was an apparent suicide and his body was found hanging from a tree near his home in Los Angeles, his attorney Michael Proctor did not provide the cause of death.
“I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning,” Proctor said in a statement.
Salling, who played footballer Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the TV show from 2009 to 2015, had pleaded guilty to possessing child sex abuse images after he was arrested in 2015, BBC reported.
Investigators found tens of thousands of pornographic images on his laptop and hard drive. In October 2017, he entered a plea that would avoiding a longer prison sentence. He was expected to get a sentence of up to seven years in jail.
“Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgement,” his attorney said in the statement.
Salling is survived by his mother, father and brother.
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